ICC World Cup: Boult, Santner help New Zealand bowl out Sri Lanka for 171
Bengaluru, Nov 9: Trent Boult rediscovered his magic with the new ball and Mitchell Santner skilfully exploited the slight grip on offer as New Zealand bundled out Sri Lanka for 171 in their crucial World Cup match here on Thursday.
Having logged eight points, the Kiwis need to win their last league match against the Lankans to stay alive in the race to join India, South Africa and Australia in the semifinals.
Accordingly, they produced a forceful effort through left-arm pacer Boult (3/37) and left-arm spinner Santner (2/22) after electing to field.
Opener Kusal Perera, who was dropped on 1 by stumper Tom Latham off Tim Southee, made a belligerent 51 off 28 balls, a mere footnote in an otherwise shambolic batting effort.
Boult, however, owned the noon in his inimitable fashion.
The 35-year-old was struggling for his rhythm in the last couple of matches, but he revealed his true colours with a bit of nip in the air, jagging the ball around.
After Southee jettisoned Pathum Nissanka, Boult dismissed Lankan captain Kusal Mendis, whose mistimed pull ended with Rachin Ravindra near square leg, in the first ball of the fifth over.
Three balls later, Boult angled one across in-form Sadeera Samarawickrama, and the indecisive right-hander nibbled it to Latham.
A couple of overs later, Boult trapped Charith Asalanka in front of the wicket with one that came wee bit in to reduce Lanka to 70 for four.
Angelo Matthews and Dhananjaya de Silva could not negate Santner's accuracy and the deliveries that spun away from them, perishing cheaply, effectively signalling the end of the Lankan fight.
However, while the Lankan castle was crumbling around him Perera played a gem of an innings.
Perera's batting is so reminiscent of his idol Sanath Jayasuriya short back-lift and a woodcutter's forearms sending the ball miles away.
But Perera had not made the kind of impact expected of him, making just one fifty against Australia in the tournament and failing to reach double digits in five other innings prior to this day.
However, the left-hander, who was dropped on 1 by stumper Tom Latham off Tim Southee, was in his element here and creamed Kiwis bowlers around the park.
Perera made Southee suffer as well. He extracted 18 runs off the pacer's third over, innings' sixth, through a sequence of 6, 4, 4, 4, 4.
The pick-up six off his legs over long-on and the drive past the point fielder were the standout shots in that series.
Perera soon reached his 17th ODI fifty, second of this tournament, with another cracking cover drive off returning pacer Lockie Ferguson.
But the fun ended soon as Ferguson had the last laugh an attempted loft over the covers ended in the hands of Santner.
Ferguson, who pinged Maheesh Theekshana on his arm, returned to rattle the late-order batsmen with his high pace, to add a couple of more wickets.
Theekshana and Dilshan Madhushanke added 43 runs for the final wicket, the highest in the Lankan essay, but they ended up with a vastly under-par total.
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Jharkhand civic polls: 12 pc voter turnout recorded in 48 ULBs till 9 am
Ranchi (PTI): Around 12 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 9 am in the civic polls to 48 urban local bodies in Jharkhand on Monday, an election official said.
Voting, which commenced at 7 am, is underway amid tight security. It will continue till 5 pm, he said.
"Voter turnout of 12 per cent was recorded till 9 am. Polling is underway peacefully," State Election Commission (SEC) secretary Radhe Shyam Prasad said.
Over 43 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 6,000-plus candidates.
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State Election Commissioner (SEC) Alka Tiwari exercised her franchise at ward number 40 in Ranchi.
"Polling is underway peacefully across the state and reports are so far good from every ULB. I would like to appeal to the voters to exercise their franchise," Tiwari told reporters.
Prasad said the elections are underway for the posts of mayor and chairperson in 48 ULBs, and councillors in 1,042 wards across nine municipal corporations, 20 nagar parishads and 19 nagar panchayats.
As many as 562 candidates, including 235 women, are in the fray for the posts of mayor and chairperson, while 5,562 candidates, including 2,727 women, are contesting the posts of ward councillors.
Prasad said adequate security arrangements have been made in all the booths.
A total of 4,307 polling booths have been set up for the elections. Of these, 896 have been identified as hyper-sensitive and 2,445 as sensitive.
